From the Hans Christian Andersen biography "The Life of Hans Christian Andersen. Day By Day", written by DPhil Johan de Mylius:

1831

The First Travel-Journal

16 May

Departure on the first journey outside of Denmark. The trip is not least an attempt to get over the fatal infatuation in Riborg Voigt. The affair is the subject of several letters to Ingemann and C.H. Lorenzen from March of this year. When, in the same period, he describes his feelings for Riborg's brother, Christian Voigt, in a letter to Lorenzen, with words such as:

"The one I feel closer to than anyone [...] It is as though he has bewitched me, I do not know why I care so much for him!"

one should not take it literally. Rather, these terms are a part of the overall ironic tone of the letter and simply mean that in lack of Riborg, his thoughts are centred on the brother.

19 May 1831

HCA writes to Edvard Collin from Hamburg, suggesting that they start addressing each other informally (using the Danish second-person pronoun "du"rather than "De", which is a difference similar to the German "du"and "Sie", or the French "tu"and "Vous").

28 May

Edvard Collin sends a reply to HCA regarding his request that they address each other informally. It is a refusal. This fatal "informality incident" preyed on HCA's mind for many years and may be seen to play a part in Skyggen (The Shadow).

3 June

Arrival in Dresden. Here, HCA meets the Norwegian painter J.C. Dahl, who had been sought out by Henriette Wulff on her journey to Germany in 1830; she became his student and has copied several of his works. In Dresden, HCA is received by the famed German romanticist, Ludwig Tieck, for whom he carried a greeting from Ingemann. Tieck bestows him with the "poet's kiss"and thus the initiation to being a poet. The friendship which is founded here in Dresden with the painter Dahl will, just as time spent with other creators of visual arts in these and coming years, be highly significant for HCA's way of viewing and describing nature. Drawing a picture of reality just as the painters do will become an artistic solution for the young HCA.
The journey in itself is a voyage of discovery in the German romantic landscapes.

11th - 15th June

During a trip to Copenhagen, Chamisso had become friends with Oehlensläger and Ingemann, who both knew HCA well. Chamisso's stories: Peter Schlemihls wundersame Geschichte from 1813 are the inspiration for HCA's story Skyggen (The Shadow) from 1847. - Through Chamisso, HCA is introduced to a literary circle which gathered in Thiergarten.

1831: The First Travel-Journal


24 June

Return to Copenhagen. The trip has cost HCA approx. 75-80 speciedaler = 150-175 rdl.

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